Saturday 26 May 2007

Sore loser


This is the face of a man who has just been put to death by lethal injection in Ohio, USA on 24 May 2007.

In itself, this looks like one of the death penalties imposed on a convict. But what's remarkable was that the prison staff had struggled for two hours to find a suitable vein to deliver the lethal chemicals.

Sheer ineptness? The execution team found Christopher Newton too heavy - he weighed 265 pounds - and couldn't find a suitable vein in his arms.

As a result, Newton's arm was poked at least 10 times with needles during a two-hour period. More absurd was that the condemned man was even allowed a bathroom leak between attempts.

Newton was already a jailbird when he was sentenced to death. His earlier crime was not explained but while in prison, he got into an argument over a chess game with a cell mate, Jason Brewer. He slammed Brewer's head onto the floor, stomped his throat and cut a piece from his orange prison suit to strangle him.

It must've been one heck of an emotional game to have caused this reaction.

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